The Washington critic., 1887-03-18
You cen
TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Justice Miller of the United States
Supreme Court was conversing In a
strcet.car not long ago with S ,nator
Cockrell of Missouri, when the Judge
remarked, falling into reminiscent
mood, as the Boston JouTWdPS CORE.
spondent tells the story: "Itis singu-
lar what shrcwd plans are resortcd to
to ascertain the way the Court is In
clined TO decide cases. Some years
ago we had the - Silver Mine case
before us for decision. AT that time
we had not our own marshal. The
District Marshal was the marshal of the
Court. An immense amount was in
volved In the case, and there was nat.
urally good deal Of anxiety TO know
how the Court would decide 1t. The
|. MARSHAL went up TO Brother -, now
ead-as pure and honorable and un
suspicious II man as ever livcd-and
said: Well Judge, presume we will
have decision soon in the Silver
Mine caseY' Yes, sIid Broi"Gr -,
very SOON Il suppose Judge clifford
will write the opinionr' oh yes,
said Brother -, Brother Clifford
will be the organ of the Court This
was all the marshal wanted to know,
for Justice Cliilord's habit was TO break
in upon an argument with queries
which clearly indicated the drift OF his
mind on the questions under discus.
sion, and when the Marshal heard that
Justice Clifford was to write the opin.
ion he knew as well as If he had been
told in so many words that the decision
would be in favor of the mining com.
pany, so he went to work and bought
up oil the stock he could on margin.
And made pile of money, Isupposc 2
Sc, 'ator Cockrell asked. well, no he
dioHt,' replied Judge Miller with
hearty laugh. The resources of the
mine had been so exaggerated in the
course Of the argument that the stock
had risen on the market beyond its real
value, and after the decision of the
Court 1t fell instead of advanced, and
'he Marshal lost all he had put up.
Upon the whole, added the Judge, Il
am inclined TO think very highly Of
the purity of the American Bench.
There arc cases we decided last year,
which would have enabled any mem.
Der of the Court by simply taking ad
. vantage of the knowledge he had Of
the views Of the majority OR
limiting them to his wife, or some con.
iidential friend, interrupted Senator
Cockrell. Yes, In that or any other
way continued Judge Miller, he
could have put million dollars In his
pocket, but here we are just as we
were last year, and no whisper of any
thing of that kind has ever been
heard.
%"s
Some special inducements have to be
held out to the inhabitants Of Wash.
irgton city to get them to attend
church, says the Pittsburg chronicle.
As all of the churches cannot boast a
Presidents wife as member, the
others have to devise something else
in the way of an attraction. Last Sun.
Gay notice was printed in the papers,
inviting the people TO hear discourse
on "The Experiences of Government
Employc." That was subject which
appealed directly to very large pro.
portion of the Washington people, and
they attended in large numbers, OK
peCting 10 hear wOeiul tale of the re.
moval of a clerk from one Of the
Departments, and ready to sym.
pathize with the unfortunate in.
dividuul. The congregation expressed
some disappointment when It was
found that the sermon was based upon
an incident in the life of Zacchcus, who,
1t will be remembered, was employed
as taX.gatherer under the Roman
Emperor about $50 years ago. 1t Is
feared that 1t will be impossible to get
the most Of that assembly into church
any more, as they consider that their
attendance on Sunday was secured un-
der false pretenses.
~
A few days ago, says Fuller Walker
in the Kansas City Journal, met Gen.
eral J. 9. Black, the Commissioner of
Pensions, and said to him: General,
what do you think of the new pension
bills which have been introduced into
Congress - at is only another way
of staving Off communism" he re-
piled. at will not do to allow large
accunulations Of money taken from the
people to remain idle In the Treasury
1t must be paid back again In some
shape or other, and kept in circulation
10 keep business going. 1t may as well
go through the Pension Office as any
other channel. If we pension all the
people who took part in the last war
we shall only be following precedent,
doing what has always been done by
this Government. We pensioned all
the survivors of the revolution, the war
of 1872, and the war with Mexico. 1t
is only question of time when all who
fought in the war of the rebellion will
be pensioned.
-.
1t is said that somewhere hill In the
dark and dusty crypts Of the Capitol
are all, or nearly all, the papers taken
from John Brown at llarper's Ferry.
Repeated Efforts have been male to
find them, but in vain, A New York
publisher, who has printed great deal
about the lIGrpc,'s Ferry insurrcctlor
and intends soon to put In book form q
series of magazine articles, has spen,
considerable time and money of late
says the New York SIMS Washington
correspondent, In rnnsacking the
archives ai the Capitol, so far With nc
results. The papers were left ut the
Capitol by the Senate Committee Of In
vestigaton appointed by the Thirty
fifth Congress. Senator Mason OF
Mason and SlidCll fame was chajrmll
of this committee. Among these pa
pcrs, and there was truukCul of then
originally is Browns diary. In It wa
list classifying his friends In thC
scheme TO free The slaves by insurrec
tion. He bad two columns on facing
pages, one marked Reliable" The
other Unreliable The first two name